Building automation systems encompass a wide variety of systems that aid in the monitoring and control of various aspects of building operation. Building automation systems (which may also be referred to herein as “building control systems”) include security systems, fire safety systems, lighting systems, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (“HVAC”) systems. Lighting systems and HVAC systems are sometimes referred to as “environmental control systems” because these systems control the environmental conditions within the building. A single facility may include multiple building automation systems (e.g., a security system, a fire system and an environmental control system). Multiple building automation systems may be arranged separately from one another or as a single system with a plurality of subsystems that are controlled by a common control station or server. The common control station or server may be contained within the building or remote from the building, depending upon the implementation.
The elements of a building automation system may be widely dispersed throughout a facility or campus. For example, an HVAC system includes temperature sensors and ventilation damper controls as well as other elements that are located in virtually every area of a facility or campus. Similarly, a security system may have intrusion detection, motion sensors, and alarm actuators dispersed throughout an entire building or campus. Likewise, fire safety systems include smoke alarms and pull stations dispersed throughout the facility or campus. The different areas or rooms of a building automation system may have different environmental settings based upon the use and personal likes of people in those areas or rooms, such as offices and conference rooms.
Building automation systems typically have one or more centralized control stations in which data from the system may be monitored, and in which various aspects of system operation may be controlled and/or monitored. The control station typically includes a computer or server having processing equipment, data storage equipment, and a user interface. To allow for monitoring and control of the dispersed control system elements, building automation systems often employ multi-level communication networks to communicate operational and/or alarm information between operating elements, such as sensors and actuators, and the centralized control station.
One example of a building automation system control station is the Apogee® Insight® Workstation, available from Siemens Industry, Inc., Building Technologies Division, of Buffalo Grove, Ill. (“Siemens”), which may be used with the Apogee® building automation system, also available from Siemens. In this system, several control stations connected via an Ethernet or another type of network may be distributed throughout one or more building locations, each having the ability to monitor and control system operation.
The typical building automation system (including those utilizing the Apogee® Insight® Workstation) has a plurality of field panels that are in communication with the central control station. While the central control station is generally used to make modifications and/or changes to one or more of the various components of the building automation system, a field panel may also be operative to allow certain modifications and/or changes to one or more parameters of the system. This typically includes changes to parameters such as temperature and lighting, and/or similar parameters.
The central control station and field panels are in communication with various field devices, otherwise known as “points”. Field devices are typically in communication with field panels of building automation systems and are operative to measure, monitor, and/or control various building automation system parameters. Example field devices include lights, thermostats, damper actuators, alarms, HVAC devices, sprinkler systems, speakers, door locks, and numerous other field devices as will be recognized by those of skill in the art. These field devices receive control signals from the central control station and/or field panels. Accordingly, building automation systems are able to control various aspects of building operation by controlling the field devices. Large commercial and industrial facilities have numerous field devices that are used for environmental control purposes. These field devices may be referred to herein as “environmental control devices”.
The environmental settings of the environmental control devices have traditionally been set using thermostats and switches located within the environment being controlled. In order to conserve energy a user of the environmental control device may lower the temperature (“turn the heat down”) or make other savings to reduce the running cycles of the HVAC system when leaving the room or building. When the user returns to the room or building, they would then “turn the heat up” or make other changes to the environmental controls to make the room or building comfortable. A problem with such an approach is the user is typically present as the building or room adjusts to the new setting.
Such approaches have also been automated with electronic thermostats that “turn the heat down” at predetermined times the users is away during the day and a predetermined times “turn the heat up” when the user is expected to be present. This approach is an improvement over previous approaches, but it is not flexible and when the user's routine changes, the automated settings often have to be manually overridden by the user.
A third approach has enabled users to remotely operate their environmental control devices remotely via internet or other network connections. This allows a user to use a smart device, such as a tablet or cellular telephone to change the settings of the environmental control devices. The drawback with such an approach is that the user is unable to determine what is the optimal time to make changes to the environmental system that would save the most energy and money and at the same time make the room or building comfortable.
While existing building automation systems may allow for users to modify their environment remotely, these approaches do not determine optimal times to make changes to the environmental system to attain increased energy savings while achieving comfort upon entering the room or building. What is needed in the art is an approach that will address these issues and problems identified above.